Marchand's return to face Bruins hits home

Marchand returned to TD Garden on Tuesday, a moment he hadn’t dared think about in the days and weeks leading up, a moment he hadn’t wanted to envision. It started to hit him on Sunday night, as he went out to dinner with the people who had helped build his career, who had shared road trips and locker rooms, the starts of families and the Stanley Cup, in Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara, Tuukka Rask and Adam McQuaid.

This was his home. It still is, in so many ways, despite the trade that sent him to the Florida Panthers on March 7, despite the Stanley Cup won last spring wearing red instead of black-and-gold, despite the six seasons for which he may still play in Florida.

It was the home in which he built a life, a legacy, one he added to on Tuesday night, with two assists in a 4-3 win for the Florida Panthers against the Bruins, bringing him to 988 career points, 976 (422 goals, 554 assists) of which he scored for the Bruins in his 1,090 games over 16 seasons. It was the place where he became Brad Marchand, for all the good and all the ill, the place where he had stumbled and gotten up, where he had formed bonds and scored goals, where he had become a hockey player he never, ever could have imagined at the start.

That was who they celebrated on Tuesday, a player who did not have the perfection of Bergeron or the intimidation of Chara, a player whose very humanness, whose mistakes and survival were indelibly part of his story, part of what endeared him to them.

And as much as Marchand tried to forget what was coming, tried to put it out of his mind and focus on the game at hand, the TV timeout hit at 9:21 of the first period and, with it, his face appeared on the video board, the crowd rising as one.

The ovation lasted nearly three full minutes, from the start of the video until play resumed, with a “Marchy! Marchy!” chant following after the puck dropped again. It was more than he could have ever believed he deserved, more than he could have ever anticipated.

As he said later, “I’ve always really, really loved them.”

He cried openly during the tribute, spurred on by that clip of Sawyer, his hand repeatedly touching his heart, waving, then back to his heart.

“A snapshot of that, a clip like that, it just brings everything back,” Marchand said. “Just the amount of pride that I had, that I have, that I played here and was part of this organization, I just couldn’t hold it in. It meant a lot.”

It was an acknowledgement of his love, of their love, a thank you.

It was, too, closure.

“It was nice in that sense, too,” he said. “There’s just a lot that came with coming back, a lot of emotions. … It is absolutely an opportunity to kind of turn the page, for everybody. For them, for us. They’re onto new things. They’ve got to move on as well. It’s not just me. That’s how it works in this game. We all have a time and our time comes to an end.”

It had been a full-throated welcome from the start, the cheers swelling as Marchand exited the visitor’s tunnel for warmups, a place as unfamiliar as any in a building in which he had, essentially, grown up. It had come when the starting lineups were announced, and when he recorded his first assist.

It had come from the hundreds, perhaps thousands, in Marchand jerseys, a sea of No. 63 visible throughout the arena, donned in homage to a player they had watched mature from a what-if to a champion to a captain to a likely Hockey Hall of Famer.

“I always loved playing here and loved putting the jersey on and wearing my heart on my sleeve,” Marchand said. “This is a hardworking city and people appreciate that. I love the fans here. They’re special. They’re an incredible group.”

At one point, during an interview with ESPN on the bench, Panthers coach Paul Maurice was asked about what this meant to Marchand, about the tribute and what he saw in the player, in the man, saying, “He’ll always be a Bruin at heart.”

It was a sentiment that Marchand struggled with after the game, with the disrespect that could show to the new team whose colors he wears, with which he won the Stanley Cup, for which he now plays, where he found – once again – something special.

Still, even though he is a member of the Panthers, has been since March, might be for the rest of his career, the Bruins are part of him. Boston is part of him.

“I’ve tried not to show any disrespect in that way – as if I’m not very grateful to be here, because I am – but I’ve been here for seven months, I’ve been in Boston for 15 years,” he said. “When you go from being a kid with a dream and then you grow up and you have a family and become a man and you build an entire life in this city, it’s just different.

“Of course, it will always be in my heart. It will always be a special place.”